Denis Venter
19 November 2008
opinion
Johannesburg — ON NOVEMBER 9, the world witnessed another failed Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit on Zimbabwe.
Rather unrealistically, President Kgalema Motlanthe (the current SADC chairman) was mooted as the person who could break the deadlock. It is strange how South Africans occasionally seem to suffer from a serious bout of collective amnesia; who remembers that it was Motlanthe, who - as head of the South African observer mission to the massively rigged Zimbabwean elections in 2002 - declared that poll to be "free, fair and credible"?
Now, at this crucial meeting, he asks two of the parties to the dispute (Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara) to withdraw from the discussions, while allowing President Robert Mugabe - the cause of the ever-worsening problem - to participate as judge, jury, and "condoner" of his own illegitimate actions. Once again, placating Mugabe was a total cop-out and an absurd caricature of SADC even-handedness.
Sadly, amid Zimbabwe's slide into political and economic oblivion, the brethren leaders of the subcontinent without fail close ranks in solidarity with Mugabe (often massaging his overblown ego as a "liberation hero"), sometimes feebly attempting to cajole him, maybe half-heartedly cautioning him in private, but publicly defending their virtual complicity in the systematic retrogression of that country into a totalitarian state.
More often than not, SADC heads of state - with the exception, on occasion, of the presidents of Botswana and Tanzania - have shown themselves to be spineless weaklings, propping up a megalomaniac and offering no real leadership.
One should be mindful of the admonition that "all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing".
The infamous, tired and worn-out policy of quiet diplomacy - former president Thabo Mbeki's SADC-sanctioned efforts to mediate between the opposing parties in Zimbabwe -- was always doomed to failure, because it was essentially underpinned by disinformation, obfuscation and procrastination.
From the outset, Mbeki's bias towards the Mugabe regime - what, with apologies to Chester Crocker, can be called "unconstructive non-engagement" -- disqualified him from playing the role of honest broker.
Through his (and now SADC's) fumbling efforts, Mbeki seems to communicate to the world that elections should be as "free and fair" as is necessary to return the ruling party to power.
Clearly, this is the bottom line for ruling government ideologues in the region -- no national liberation movement government (Swapo, the MPLA, Zanu (PF), the African National Congress, and Frelimo) should ever lose or relinquish power, most of all not through legal constitutional or electoral means.
However, March 29 should have changed all this: the Movement for Democratic Change's (MDC's) victory in the parliamentary and presidential poll in Zimbabwe has now confronted these governments with the spectre of the domino effect, or the feared "Nicaragua phenomenon" - that is, the loss of power through (yes, even) grossly rigged and manipulated electoral processes.
Events in Zimbabwe (and Kenya) illustrate that in the evolution of what is taken for democracy in Africa, the tyrant's weapon of choice has evolved from the military coup to the stuffed ballot box.
Former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan's "Kenyan solution" merely papered over the cracks in the political fabric of Kenyan society and now Mbeki (and SADC leaders) disingenuously want to superimpose their own version of a "government of national unity" on Zimbabwe.
In Zimbabwe, as it did in Kenya, it will merely condone electoral fraud on a massive scale and lead to the undermining of the MDC, which will be regarded as the "junior partner" in this unholy alliance. No wonder, then, that two months after reaching a "power-sharing deal" in Harare on September 15, a workable government could not be constructed.
Mbeki must have been daft to hurry into a formal signing ceremony of an "agreement" that should have set out the crux of any deal: the allocation of extremely important ministries, such as finance, home affairs, defence, information, foreign affairs, and control of the intelligence services.
Mugabe's mantra is that Zimbabwe should have its own definition of democracy and that autocracy can be described as "the will of the people". So compromised by years of abuse of power, he and his security chiefs can only continue to hang on at any cost, even if it means bringing down the country with them.
To paraphrase a Somali writer in a different context: he has indeed put Zimbabwe on "the road to zero". The personality cult built around him and his entire personality make-up (of which vanity, or a "grandiose sense of self", is but one characteristic) argues against national reconciliation and a South African-propagated government of national unity.
Mugabe is the epitome of arrogance - observe the body language, the swagger. It is not within Mugabe's psyche to relinquish power: suffering from what is known as a "bureaucratic-compulsive syndrome", he has become more and more dogmatic, inflexible and paranoid over the years. Indeed, Mugabe "has not a single redeeming defect" - as Benjamin Disraeli so aptly said of William Gladstone.
So, one should heed Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert's warning: the most dangerous moment for a democracy is not the founding elections, but when the incumbent government experiences a crisis in leadership and is defeated at the polls. Clearly, the ultimate test for democracy is the willingness of the vanquished incumbent to cede power to its victorious opponent - not to cling stubbornly to the reins of power.
In the final analysis, the suspicion remains that the MDC is being set up as the fall guy, while Zanu (PF) continues to control the so-often repressive levers of state power.
Dr Venter is a former executive director of the Africa Institute of SA and currently runs a Pretoria-based political risk analysis unit, Africa Consultancy & Research.
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It is shocking that in this day and age that one can make such comments. Do you bury your head in the sand? Are you oblivious to the plight of thousands of Zimbabweans? A country that was once the bread basket of Southern Africa is now decimated by poverty. I have witnessed Zimbabweans crossing the border at Vic Falls to buy bread in Livingstone to sell on the streets at home. All this is happening during Mugabe's reign. How can such a brutal dictator be regarded as a hero? This is the man who oversaw the butchering of 1000's of Ndebele in the 1980's and who has driven people from their own country into SA, Zambia and Botswana to sleep on the streets.
Bravo to African leaders like the late Levy Mwanawasa and Ian Khama who have stood up agianst the brutality of this evil tyrant. May he rot in hell!
Your comment implies that anyone who criticizes Cde Robert Mugabe (no matter what he does) is "colonia and imperialist". Mugabe can plunder the nation, torture and destroy anyone he likes, but the loyal African must acclaim him as a hero, even if his body is maimed from torture. Do you think we Africans are so stupid as to support a "liberation hero" even when he destroys his own people. We have minds of our own; we will insist on the democratic right to elect our own leaders and to vote out of office those who destroy us.
Those who support Mugabe are desperately clinging to a worn-out liberation/anti-colonialism rhetoric, which assumes that a person can be discredited simply by attaching the label "colonial" to him; conversely, that anyone who is a "liberation hero" can do nothing wrong. You will have to become a bit more sophisticated than that to persuade any intelligent person of your point of view.
Those who support Mugabe are the ones who have no regard for African independence and self-determination. The people of Zimbabwe voted him out of office; to insist that he must remain is to subject Africans to an oppressive power which they themselves have rejected. You and Mugabe may think that he "cannot afford to handover to younger people", but the people of Zimbabwe have decided differently. The point is not what you or Cde Mugabe think; it is what the people of Zimbabwe think.
As for the statement that Mugabe "continues to fight for the freedom of Zimbabwe and Africa", what kind of freedom is cholera, starvation, hospitals closing down, raw sewage in the streets, torture and imprisonment for any voice of dissent, beatings for peaceful demonstration, inflation in the millions of percent, 3% pass rate in schools, 4-5 million people in exile, 4-5 million needing food aid?
This post was deleted because it contravenes AllAfrica's commenting guidelines.
This post was deleted because it contravenes AllAfrica's commenting guidelines.
I lament the collapse of Rhodesia and wonder what kind of people regard Mugabe as a liberation hero? he murdered all the original Zanu PF leaders, came into power by violence, maintained power by violence and refuses to cede to popular votes. Priminister Ian Smith was a better man: a true African, dedicated to our country, Rhodesia and until the day he died never said a negative thing about blacks. As far as history is concerned, my birth certificate states I am a Rhodesian and I will always be proud of it.
To hell with Rhodesia you are just the same with Zanu PF Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was about racial discrimination and the current Zanu PF is about anti-opposition you are just one and the same thing. Dont be proud of a failed regime. ZveRhodesia ndezve kumba kwa amai izvo Fusheke.
Gt: let’s not get emotional no swearing...etc lets use facts and one's right to choose. Ukati unoda zanu parikenge I respect you narrow mindedness but respect other people's right to choose. We still have to account for the villages wiped out by Prence Shiri in Midlands, Matabeleland North and South. I think failure to understand the plight of Matabeles is Tribalism which infact in a form of racism. On one hand you are talking of Rhodesian racism but fail to acknowledge lower Gwelo genocide? Why are you one sided aren't Sindebele people Zimbabweans too? In Rhodesia these people would still be alive. All this drama and for what? You lost the election step down, Smith stepped down, De klerk stepped down, Mandela stepped down, Mbeki stepped down, Chissano stepped down…….. and the list goes on. Ok he does n’t want Morgan Tsvangirai how about other people from with his own party? There lays the problem, a despot!
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This demonisation of our leader Cde Robert Mugabe is clear evidence that some people are still colonia and imperialist. They are the reasons why seasoned leaders lioke Mugabe cannot afford to handover to younger people. Mugabe is a liberation hero and continues to fight for the freedom of the people of Zimbabwe and Africa in general. Bravo to other African leaders like Mbeki, Monthlante etc who know the reality.